Conjecture

[Prayer Warrior]

I only just became obedient in trust of what He has said regarding temporal provision in March-April. I've learned to resist the worry and stand firm in trust. I've been practicing the obedience of trust. I don't want to wander around 40 more years failing my tests. And I want Him to be able to tell me about heavenly things.

I agree that our Father provides all that we need, and I want to encourage you to keep trusting Him for these things. My family has seen some very hard times over the years, but I can honestly say, "I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned or his children begging for bread" (Ps 37:25).

This is not a matter of either/or — either God takes care of our earthly needs OR He rewards us in heaven. He clearly does both. IOW, He takes care of us temporally AND eternally. In this earth life we are to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and we are assured that our Heavenly Father will supply our earthly needs. This is a promise from our Father!

Paul echoes this promise in Phil 4:19 when he says, "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." It's not that Paul never knew hardship or hunger, but God supplied his needs so that he could do all that God had called him to do. And when Paul had finished his race, God called him to his eternal home.... I believe that God will do the same with us.

Matt 6:25-34— “This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you — you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

 

[stunnedbygrace]

There's no automatic, "you obey Me and I'll make you rich" like there was with Israel.

I never said that if we have the obedience of trust That He will make us rich. I said if we learn to have the obedience of trust in what He has said and promised as regards temporal provision He will provide for our temporal needs.

 

[stunnedbygrace]

I think God wants to bless us in "basket and store" as well. In fact, until we believe Him about what He has said regarding temporal provision and stop our worry over it, He can't tell us about heavenly things.

I'm not sure that's true.

Jesus said it - If you won't believe Me about earthly things, how will I tell you about heavenly things?

He also said, I have more to tell you but you aren't able to bear it yet.

I will concede that God doesn't always work in us in a linearly fashion, or even exactly the same. I do know that sometimes He grants favors to men that they don't yet have the maturity to handle. So if you say you believed and understood and trusted Him about spiritual things before you believed and trusted Him about a temporal thing like not worrying over provision, perhaps it's true. I personally have seen that its an overlay of sorts, the temporal with the spiritual overlaying it and there is a...understanding in pieces here and there and a grasping and forgetting and rediscovery aspect to it.

Most men I see struggle over temporal matters and promises first. Some of their first questions are things like...but how do I know this is true that I can trust Him for my temporal needs as He has said because there ARE people starving in the world you know.

There is also the matter of testings to grow your trust. It does say that He let Israel become very thirsty in the desert to see what they would do. And Paul did say he had sometimes gone hungry.

But God doesn't allow us to hunger or thirst on some capricious whim, like, ah, I'm tired and these kids are going to have to go hungry this morning because I don't feel like making breakfast this morning. If He lets a son hunger or thirst, it is always for the purpose of the good of the man. There is nothing more precious than our trust and He will take extreme measures to grow it, since we are saved by it - it is all by His kindness, through trust ( by Grace through faith).